May. 10th, 2011 Blue Ridge from Home – Focus on Fiction Tuesday

Tuesday.

At Blue Ridge, the conferees are heading to continuing classes and workshops. The paid critiques and meetings with agents and editors begin today.

Let’s take a moment to pray for everyone who is about to lose their breakfast or lunch over the prospect of having their “baby” shredded to confetti and for those who didn’t eat anything and now have the shakes just before they sit down for their first agent meeting.

And let’s not forget to pray for those faculty members who are giving the critiques and meeting with prospective clients. They are people too! And they aren’t in this to be mean. Their goal is to help aspiring writers succeed.

OK.

So what are we going to do today? Let’s focus on fiction.

I’ve split the faculty up in a way that makes sense to me. Some could go in the nonfiction list as well but I’m not doubling up.

Here’s a list of of faculty members who teach/critique/represent fiction.

If you look at the faculty listing on the Blue Ridge website, not everyone has a website listed. So, in this list, I’ve tried to provide links to all the websites associated with each person.

If there’s a link associated with both the name and the description, those are two different links – click on both! If you click on a link and it takes you to the Blue Ridge website, then you’ll need to click on the 2011 faculty page and scroll down to their info because they included A LOT of links!

Clear as mud? Great!

Many of these websites have fabulous writing tips. Have fun!

Sandra Bishop – Agent, MacGregor Literary
Caleb Jennings BreakeyWriter
Jonathan Clements – Agent, Wheelhouse Literary Group
Mike Delosso – Writer
Adrienne Gaines – Editor, Charisma House
Aaron Gansky – Writer
Alton Gansky – Writer/Conference Director
Julie Gwinn – Editor, Pure Enjoyment
Gina HolmesWriter
Dr. Angela Hunt – Writer
Yvonne Lehman – Writer
Nancy Lohr – Editor, JourneyForth; Focuses on writing for children
Sarah Sper McClellan – Agent; Folio
DiAnn Mills – Writer
Deborah Raney – Writer
Romona Richards – Editor/Writer
Nancy Rue – Writer; Focuses on children/youth
Dr. Linda Seger – Screenwriter
Dina Sleiman – Editor, WhiteFire Publishing
Les Stobbe – Agent, Writer, Editor
Christy Lee Taylor – Film Producer, Abba Productions
Dr. Donn Taylor – Writer/Poet
David Van Diest – Agent, D.C. Jacobson and Assoc.

I’ll be honest. Typing up this list made me rather gloomy for a while. What a list! The agents. The editors. The phenomenal authors. The collective creative talent at Blue Ridge is astonishing.

Sigh.

But this brings us to….
Tuesday Night!

Let’s have some fun. Watch a comedy…a movie, a sitcom, a YouTube clip…whatever you’ve got time for.

Then leave a comment about anything particularly intriguing you found on the websites and tell us what made you laugh tonight. We aren’t sitting together in the cafeteria or main meeting room at Blue Ridge, so we’ll have to use the comments section to share our experiences.

Have a great first day everyone!

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6 Comments

  1. Leigh says:

    Hi, y'all! I'll be walking up to meet DD at the bus stop in a few, which means the majority of my work day is about to end.

    I spent part of my lunchtime looking more closely at some of the faculty who were added later in the process (hadn't done it earlier since I wouldn't be at the conference). What an easy-to-access list you gave us! Thanks for that. 🙂

    I learned that although the conference agency reps don't acquire it, other agents at DC Jacobson and Folio rep children's/MG projects. Those can be hard to find in CBA, so I was glad to latch onto some new names. DC Jacobson also has an agency blog that I signed up to follow.

    When I'm ready for funniness tonight I'll just have to hang out with our kids for a while. With a 9YO DD and 12YO DS around, we have more than our share of laughs! 🙂 Plus I'll probably watch Vonda's You Tube of Solomon's Beloved again. That's always a good cure-all for the glums.

  2. Day Two is great! Thanks for the terrific list. I reviewed the JourneyForth site (as I'm still editing my MG manuscript that I completed last February – my 6th time through!)
    I downloaded one of their recently published books, The Silent, to my new Kindle — a Mother's Day gift! I need to check out the DC Jacobson stuff that Leigh referenced above, sounds great.
    Entertainment…I watched two blue jays defend the birdfeeder against a squirrel at lunch. My reenactment for the family at dinner should be comical!

    Jeanette

  3. Jeanne Doyon says:

    Day two has been a tough one; crazy day at the office (I am a receptionist in a busy doctor's office) with swollen eyes….allergies are acting up. The pollen count is outrageous the last day or two with everything in New England blooming at once!

    I am counting down the days to my writer's getaway planned for next weekend. Three whole days of solitude with God. So these links will come in handy for sure.

    Praying for all my BR friends,

    Jeanne

  4. Leigh says:

    Jeanne, I would love to know what you plan for your writer's getaway. Where do you go? I did the same a few years ago — told my husband all I wanted for Christmas was a weekend away by myself to write. It was wonderful! Such a sweet time in many ways.

    I asked for the same thing for my birthday back in March. I probably won't get it until after school starts back, thanks to baseball, summer trips, and my husband's overloaded work schedule. I WILL squeeze it in sometime, though, even if it's not until the fall. In the meantime, I'll be praying that your time away goes well and that you come home refreshed and validated in where God wants you to go.

    Leigh

  5. admin says:

    So here's how my day went…
    A two month old who seems to be in the middle of a growth spurt and literally ate every 2 hours…a two year old who seems to be in the middle of an attitude spurt and needed frequent guidance to a sweeter spirit…
    Yeah…not much else got done today. And that's OK. Because I'm home. And that's what I needed to do.
    I could have watched a comedy, but chose to watch NCIS, because I'm addicted. I'm saving my comedies for tomorrow :-). I did manage to discover Pandora and the "film scores" channel, which is going to be awesome for my fiction writing! Does that count?
    Best thing about a "home" conference? If you need to extend it a few days…you can! You're in charge!
    Blessings to all of you!

  6. Erynn says:

    Yeah, I'm woefully off schedule. I think my life just asploded. But I DID get to watch NCIS, and I'm actually working on getting registered for ACFW.
    Research for that editor/agent list begins tomorrow!!!
    Mostly I'm stressssssssed out. I didn't know all of the fundage was due at registration, so I've been scrambling to get that together, and some of my friends have stepped up in MAJOR ways and blessed my face off. Which caused hubs to sweetly encourage me by saying, "with all this support you're receiving, you definitely have to finish by September and get an agent and a publisher." No pressure.
    Serenity now!!!